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Home > Statistics & Research > Child Abuse & Neglect Research > Abstracts and Findings from Federally Funded Child Abuse and Neglect Research

 

Project Title: Assessing Quality of Out-of-Home Care in the Child Welfare System
Grant/Contract Number: 90CW1094
Type of Project: Research
Funding Agency: Children's Bureau
Agency Contact Person: Geneva Ware-Rice
(202) 205-8305
Principal Investigator: Brenda Jones-Hardin
Mailing Address: University of Maryland
Department of Human Development
College Park, MD 20742
Total Project Duration: 10/01/95 to 09/30/98
FY 98 Total Costs: $159,189
Total Project Budget: $550,000
Child Maltreatment Focus: Not specified
Type of Abuse: Not specified
Sample Size: Not specified
Age of Subjects: Not specified
Child Abuse and Neglect Focus
of This Project:		 Not specified
Summary  


The suitability of the current pool of foster parents to meet the needs of children in their care has been relatively unexplored. Similarly, relative foster care placements and ethnicity as factors in foster care are also under-studied child welfare issues. The mission of this study is to promote quality in the care taking environments of foster children. The overall goal is to fill the gap in the literature on foster family care by examining the individual characteristics of foster parents across domains, as well as the characteristics of the home. The research design will include a comparison of relative and nonrelative foster homes, and a comparison of African American and Caucasian foster homes. The 240 participants in this study will be drawn from foster parents and children in Prince George's and Montgomery Counties (Maryland), with 120 families from each county expected to participate. Both counties are socioeconomically and ethnically diverse, and have had an increase in their high-risk populations due to migration from Washington, DC, and foreign countries. Using a 2 x 2 cohort design, the proposed study will compare the placement characteristics of relative and non-relative foster homes, and African American and Caucasian foster homes. The research approach is to examine the quality of the foster home from three perspectives: (1) the characteristics of the foster families; (2) the functioning of the foster children in their care; and (3) the assessment of the quality of the home by the assigned social worker. The study will address personal characteristics of the foster parents; family and home environment; parenting capacities of the foster parents; attitudes and motivation toward fostering; relationships with the agency; and parent-child relationships.